Friday, January 13, 2017

Weekend Art Challenge 011317—ghostbow

Click through to see the illustration and design requirements for your single  card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of times. I will aim to review the most recent submission from each designer.



Design a card for this art. Penalty points for trying to make a mount mechanic.

30 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. There's two humanoid figures in armour

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    3. Also one has a bow.
      If you click on the picture you can see it at full resolution. I was almost tricked, too!

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  2. Enslaved Hammerhead {2}{G}{W}
    Creature - Beast (c)
    Trample
    When ~ dies, create two 1/1 green and white Elf Warrior creature tokens.
    4/2

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    1. In a modern set, this would probably be uncommon, both for power level and because it's a perfect "draft this color pair" card. Other than that, I love the design-- it's clean, resonant, and exciting.

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    2. I honestly don't know what's uncommon-for-power-level after Kaladesh. This is real solid. Could be mono-green, but GW works too if that's what the set wants.

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  3. Fall Over 3W
    Instant
    Tap target creature. Whenever target creature deals damage this turn, it deals that much damage to itself instead.

    This could be in R or W with slight tweaks, but I wanted "tap" for flavour reasons so W won out. R has "damage to itself" more recently, but white used to have it sometimes, and the redirection only if it tries to deal damage makes it feel white in a way pure "deal damage to itself" doesn't.

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    1. And look! I resisted the temptation to make a mount mechanic. Or a rider mechanic. Or re-use an existing mount mechanic. I feel like I actually followed the spirit of the request for once :)

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    2. I'm having trouble coming up with scenarios where both halves of this card are relevant. Blocking? Almost never. Attacking? Only if the creature has vigilance. Upkeep? Only if the creature is... *searches Gatherer* Hellrider or Bloodpyre Elemental.

      The issue is easy to fix, though. Make the card into a modal spell! (Or remove the tap clause entirely since that's by far the weaker mode.) Yes, it's a bit less resonant, but it'll make it a lot easier to play with.

      Also, considering that this is rarely any better than Gideon's Reproach, and almost strictly worse than Divine Verdict, it's probably safe to cost at 2W or even 1W. (I'm assuming it'll be at uncommon for complexity reasons.)

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    3. I like the alternate interpretation of the art. I'm totally cool with white redirecting a creature's damage to itself. Could probably be 2W.

      I don't like the tap trinket text, because it makes it possible to play this wrong and distracts from the card's primary mechanical purpose, but it is good flavor.

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  4. Leaping Archermount 3GG
    Creature - Beast (C)
    2U: Leaping Archermount gains flying until end of turn
    2W: Leaping Archermount gains first strike until end of turn.
    4/4

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    1. If I wasn't being penalized for mount mechanics it'd be "tap a wizard you control" and "tap an archer you control" respectively

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    2. So this is a Bant-themed-- wait, no, it's base-green with an ally *and* an enemy activation. That's pretty interesting. Assuming we can justify the flavor-- and it sure seems like we can-- I'm liking this idea a lot. A green 4/4 for 5 with a conditional extra ability seems decent in Limited, so this will appeal to UG and GW players, but not GR and BG unless they're desperate for warm bodies. That seems like a solid place to be.

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    3. Given the set that wants wGu creatures, this seems real solid. Both activations are relatively expensive and I think they need to be. Nice.

      Tribal would be fine, though archers are much more green than white (or anything else).

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  5. Simic Juggernaut
    4GU
    Creature - Crocodile Frog - Rare
    1GU: Simic Juggernaut gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.
    6/6

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    1. I love how all the designers seem to have different ideas about the scale of this art. That makes it especially fun to compare designs.

      This design is very straightforward for rare without being super-powerful in either Constructed or Limited, which worries me a little. Of course, it'll delight Timmy / Tammy players, so that's a plus. But you really have nothing to lose by bumping the P/T to 7 or 8, especially since this is probably an iconic Simic top-end creature. Otherwise it'll just read like a glorified Cowl Prowler.

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    2. Fair point. Other knobs to turn: give it trample, reduce the cost of the ability.

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    3. Not 100% sold that this art depicts a crocodile frog with hexproof, but otherwise this is solid. Big rare creature with resistance to removal. More than making this bigger or tramplier, I think I'd want to help it get to the point where it can protect itself: Either give it flash (so I can cast it on your end step and untap to protect it), or give it one free activation when it hits the table, or something. Or even just give it permanent hexproof.

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  6. Bant Sentinals 1G
    Creature - uncommon
    Vigilance
    When Bant Sentinals enters the battlefield put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
    2/2

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    1. I like the design-- it's resonant and powerful without being unbalanced-- but it also violates the color pie on every plane except New Phyrexia, which according to the card name it isn't from. If you were to cost it at 1B (or BB) and rename it, I'd totally be on board.

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    2. This is very strong, though no longer too strong for uncommon. It's very much a color pie bleed. The fact that it's a creature who's weakening/removing an opposing creature doesn't quite justify it for me: Green can't have Nekrataal even though that's technically creature-based removal.

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  7. Pouncing Waverunner 2G
    Creature - Beast (U)
    Creatures with power less than or equal to the number of Islands you control can't block Pouncing Waverunner.
    4/2

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    1. 4/2 for 3 already seems like something that any green deck in Limited would be happy to play (see: Alpine Grizzly). And for players who go into UG, this creature quickly becomes impossible to block profitably. Probably OK for power level at uncommon, but it makes me a little leery for some reason.

      Other than that, though, I like the design a lot. Simple, resonant, innovative, and very in-color-pie. (Except that even with no Islands, 0/X creatures can never block this... not sure whether that's intentional.)

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    2. Alpine Grizzly was common, so giving it a conditional upside at uncommon is probably fair.

      My first reaction was actually that this scales too slowly because having one island and this only prevents 1/Xs from blocking, but the next threshold is a big jump. A 4/2 that can't be blocked by 2/Xs is more likely to trade with a 3/3 or so, negating the main downside of being 4/2.

      You can theoretically do that with one forest and two islands. That's tricky, but you can also level it up later in the game. This card is right where I want it to be for a set pushing GU, as an aggro/tempo archetype.

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  8. War Lizard 2UB
    Creature- Faerie Knight (Uncommon)
    2/2
    Flanking
    Whenever CARDNAME attacks and isn't blocked, target creature defending player controls gets -1/-1 until end of turn.

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    1. I love the flexible flanking bonus a lot; it feels like it should be bundled into one ability or keyword instead of separated like this.

      While I can look at the card and figure out what it's doing it does feel at first like two disparate effects instead of basically one effect that your opponent can mess with through combat (which is the coolest part)

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    2. Good point. Given the low likelihood of seeing flanking return as a set mechanic it makes sense to write this out. Also, it'll be functionally different from flanking (and better) because it drops the 'without flanking' qualifier. New text box:

      Whenever a creature blocks CARDNAME, that creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
      Whenever CARDNAME attacks and isn't blocked, target creature defending player controls gets -1/-1 until end of turn.

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    3. Took me a second to get the small scale and that this isn't green. "You choose who gets flanked or else I do" is great, though I'm not really buying this as blue.

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  9. I'm loving the variety of interpretations among these designs, and also want to call out a generally very strong aesthetic quality as well. Nice work, Artisans.

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